ABSTRACT
Substance, or what is it? , 'horse') Quantity, or how much? , 'is Q·uality, or what kind? (e.g., 'is white') Relations, or in relation to what? Where? , 'is in the market~ place') When? Position? , 'is upright') Having? (e.g., Doing? Being
, 'is running') by? (e.g., 'is being
The most fundamental category is the first, substance (ousia). Aristotle argues that substances are the basic or primary constituents of reality, and this point is central to all his metaphysics. This means that all the other categories indicate dependent existents. This is why substance is always included in all lists of the in addition to quality and quantity. From this point, we can also see that, although Aristotle's list is of basic types of predicate terms (i.e., it is a linguistic it is also a list of the different ways in which things can exist (i.e., it is also ontological). For this reason, Aristotle employs the categories in his metaphysics by that 'exists' is paronymous. The lin~ guistic list has ontological implications.
